Inaccessible Island: Difference between revisions

| image_name = [[File:Tristan Map.png|300px|Map showing Inaccessible Island and nearbynear Tristan da Cunha and Nightingale Islands.]]

| footnotes =

{{Infobox protected area

| name = Inaccessible Island

| iucn_category = Ia

| designated =

| child = yes

| embedded = {{Designation list

| embed = yes

| designation1 = WHS

| designation1_type = Natural

| designation1_criteria = vii, x

| designation1_date = [[List of World Heritage Sites by year of inscription#1995 (19th session)|1995]] <small>(41st [[World Heritage Committee|session]])</small>

| designation1_number = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/740 740]

| designation2 = Ramsar

| designation2_date = 20 November 2008

| designation2_number = 1869<ref>{{Citecite web |url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1869 |title=Inaccessible Island |website=[[Ramsar Convention|Ramsar]] Sites Information Service|url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1869 |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>}}

}}

Inaccessible Island is part of the [[Tristan da Cunha|archipelago of Tristan da Cunha]], which is part of the [[British Overseas Territories|overseas territory]] of the [[United Kingdom]] known as [[Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha]]. Tristan da Cunha itself is accessible only by sea via a seven-day voyage from [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]], and the harbour on Inaccessible Island allows access for only a few days of the year.<ref>" . .it’s.it's really only possible to land on Inaccessible Island for a week or so each year, probably around December and January." (Atlas Obscura)</ref> Access to theInaccessible islandIsland must be granted by the local government office.<ref name=AO/>

In 1997, Inaccessible Island's territorial waters out to {{convert|22|km|mi|abbr=on}} were declared a nature reserve under the Tristan da Cunha Conservation Ordinance of 1976. Currently, only guides from Tristan are allowed to take visiting cruise ships to Inaccessible; most trips to the island are now made at the request of [[expatriates]].{{cn|date=April 2024}} In 2004 Inaccessible Island was added to the [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] of Gough Island to create a new site of [[Gough and Inaccessible Islands]].{{cn|date=April 2024}}

At least three confirmed shipwrecks have occurred off the coast of Inaccessiblethe Islandisland. The first was [[{{ship||Blenden Hall (|1811 ship)|''Blenden Hall'']]2}}, a British ship which set sail in 1821 with 54 passengers and crew aboard, her destination [[Mumbai|Bombay]]. Captain Alexander Grieg intended to sail past [[Saint Helena]], but adverse currents carried her to Tristan da Cunha. She got caught in seaweed, and on 22 July, drifted aground on Inaccessible Island. All but two of those aboard survived the shipwreck.<ref name=lloyds_list5692/> They spent the next four months subsisting on wild celery, seals, penguins, and albatross.{{fact|date=March 2021}} They managed to build a boat some months later. The first attempt to sail to Tristan failed, resulting in the loss of six people; but the second attempt alerted the Tristanians to their plight. The remainder were then brought to Tristan, where the [[brig]] ''Nerina'' arrived about two months later and took most to [[Cape Town]], South Africa.<ref name="lloyds_list5692">{{cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005730638&view=1up&seq=137|title=Lloyd's List|publisher=Gregg International|year=1822|pages=78 v|location=Westmead, Gt. Brit.|quote=The Blenden Hall, Greig, from London to Bombay, was totally wrecked on the 23d of July, on Inaccessible Island, near Tristan da Cunha. The Master, Officers, and Passengers saved : two of the crew were drowned when the Ship was lost; and six others who left the island in a boat on the 19th October for Tristan da Cunha, have not since been heard of. The Nerinæ Lachlan, of London, arrived at the Cape of Good Hope 20th January, with 4 ladies, 3 children, 20 other passengers, and 11 of the crew, who had been on Inaccessible Island sixteen weeks, and went from thence in boats to Tristan da Cunha.}}</ref>

No land mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, or snails have been found at Inaccessible. The island does havehas 64 native plant species, including 20 types of [[flowering plant]]s and 17 species of [[fern]]s. In addition, 48 invertebrate species exist on the island, 10 of which were introduced.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/accessibility/island/wildlife.htm|title=Inaccessible Island - Wildlife and Plantlife|publisher=University of Central Lancashire|year=2002|access-date=21 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235436/http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/accessibility/island/wildlife.htm|archive-date=26 September 2007}}</ref> [[Subantarctic fur seal]]s and [[southern elephant seal]]s have also been seen at the island in increasing numbers, and [[cetacea]]ns live in the surrounding waters: most notably, [[southern right whale]]s and a resident population of [[dusky dolphin]]s.

Inaccessible is perhapsthe bestexclusive knownhabitat forof the [[Inaccessible Island rail]], the world's smallest living flightless bird.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stervander|first1=Martin|last2=Ryan|first2=Peter G.|date=1 January 2019|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=130 |pages=92–98 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2018.10.007 |last3=Melo|first3=Martim |last4=Hansson |first4=Bengt|pmid=30321695|title=The origin of the world's smallest flightless bird, the Inaccessible Island Rail Atlantisia rogersi (Aves: Rallidae)|bibcode=2019MolPE.130...92S |s2cid=53024581}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/accessibility/island/ringing.htm|title=Birds Ringed on Inaccessible Island|publisher=University of Central Lancashire|year=2002|access-date=21 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235243/http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/accessibility/island/ringing.htm|archive-date=26 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-did-the-world-s-smallest-flightless-bird-get-to-inaccessible-island|publisher=Pocket worthy Stories to fuel your mind.|date=2 November 2018|title=How Did the World's Smallest Flightless Bird Get to Inaccessible Island? The first scientists to describe the animal thought it might have walked.|work=[[Atlas Obscura]]|first1=Sarah|last1=Laskow|quote=On this one tiny island, there is a thriving population of thousands of what we’ll now call Laterallus rogersi, but they are considered vulnerable to extinction.|access-date=14 June 2020}}</ref> The island has been identified as an [[Important Bird Area]] (IBA) by [[BirdLife International]] as a breeding site for [[seabird]]s and its endemic landbirds. Birds for which the IBA is significant include [[northern rockhopper penguin]]s (up to 27,000 breeding pairs), [[Tristan albatross]]es (2–3 pairs), [[sooty albatross]]es (200 pairs), [[Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross]]es (1,100 pairs), [[broad-billed prion]]s (up to 500,000 pairs), [[soft-plumaged petrel]]s (up to 50,000 pairs), [[spectacled petrel]]s, [[great shearwater]]s (up to 2&nbsp;million pairs), [[little shearwater]]s (up to 50,000 pairs), [[white-faced storm petrel]]s (up to 50,000 pairs), [[white-bellied storm petrel]]s (up to 50,000 pairs), [[Antarctic tern]]s, [[Inaccessible rail]]s (up to 5,000 pairs), [[Tristan thrush]]es (1,500-7,000 individuals across the Tristan da Cunha archipelago),<ref>{{cite web |title=Tristan Thrush |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22708541/117286443 |website=The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species |publisher=International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |access-date=30 April 2024}}</ref> and [[Inaccessible buntingIsland finch]]ses (around 24,000 individuals).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.birdlife.org|title=Inaccessible Island|access-date=26 October 2012|work=Important Bird Areas factsheet|publisher=BirdLife International|year=2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Inaccessible Island Finch |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22735943/95121524 |website=The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species |publisher=International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources |access-date=30 April 2024}}</ref>

* In [[Patrick O'Brian]]'s ''[[The Thirteen -Gun Salute]]'' (1989), pp.&nbsp;120–29, Captain Aubrey's ship ''Diane'', in a dead calm, is carried toward Inaccessible Island by the onshore current. One sailor recounts the wreck of a whaling ship that he witnessed when it was lost with all hands in similar conditions. Only a fortunate breeze saves Aubrey's ship. The episode is depicted in the cover painting of the book showing the towering cliffs plunging directly into the sea.

* [[Eric Newby]] passed within sight of Inaccessible Island on his 1938–1939 voyage from Ireland to Australia aboard ''[[Moshulu]]'', as chronicled in his books ''[[The Last Grain Race]]'' and ''Learning the Ropes''. Inaccessible IslandIt was the only land that the crew saw on the voyage until reaching Australia, and was therefore a cause for some excitement.